The thing that drew me to the Los Angeles Clippers when I moved west 13 years ago was the voice of Ralph Lawler. I didn’t know many people when I first arrived in town, which meant there were plenty of nights at home before I met the friends who’d become my Los Angeles family. I’d flip on the tube and look for a game to keep me company while I fixed myself dinner.

That’s when I first discovered Ralph.

I have a full feature on Ralph Lawler over at ESPN Los Angeles. Here’s an exceprt:  More...

Diane Pucin of the Los Angeles Times has a long profile of someone who hasn’t missed a single Clippers game in 30 years – play-by-play man Ralph Lawler:

Bob Miller, the hockey Hall of Fame broadcaster for the Kings, says there is no harder job than calling the action of an awful team, game after game, minute after endless minute.

Lawler has been doing that for the Clippers for 30 years, but the losses — 1,583 — have not defeated him.  More...

This season, a procession of visiting coaches delivered identical pregame bytes to the media prior to taking the court against the Clippers. “I told my guys that this is a talented NBA team they’re facing.  The Clippers have a lot of guys who can play.”  The 2008-09 Clippers’ team managed to sell expectations of its talent until the final days of the season. They’ve existed in a platonic force field ruled by the idea that the design could work, if only… That dynamic generates a powerful intensity that’s hard to let go of.  Most 60-loss teams don’t achieve spectacular failure, they just lose lots of games.  The 08-09 Clippers are one of the exceptions, and they’ve made for an ugly, but captivating, subject. Call it Stockholm Syndrome, but over the past few days, I’ve been hit by a strange pang of sadness at the thought that, after Wednesday, we won’t see the 08-09 Clippers ever again.  More...

Imagine it’s Spring 2008.  You’re a 22-year-old basketball cautionary tale. A year earlier, you were booted off your college squad for disciplinary reasons.  You managed to put together a solid campaign for the Idaho Stampede of the D-Leaguer, but Boise is still a long way from the L.  In transit to Des Moines in the dead of winter, you’re delayed in the Denver airport.  In a crowded gate area, you find an isolated corner where you plug in your mp3 player and close your eyes.  It’s a Fletch/Chick Hearn moment.  You conjure up your dream sequence, in which a venerable NBA announcer waxes poetic about your humongous contributions to you pro squad.  More...

• First off, tremendous thanks to D.J. Foster for holding down the fort this weekend.
• The Associated Press’ Jeff Latzke has a profile of Shaun Livingston, making his way back with the Tulsa 66ers: “Livingston has no intention of ever watching the replay of that fateful night, believing that doing so would do nothing to help him make the kind of plays he’s making now. At times, he looks like the same Livingston as before — his white socks pulled up to the knees of his toothpick-thin legs — except now there’s a black brace on his left knee and his stringy dreadlocks have been replaced by a close-cut hairdo. On Saturday night, he had the blow-by for a dunk in the first quarter and another dunk in the third quarter — the first time he’d had two dunks in a game since he started playing again. He also had a behind-the-back assist on a basket by D.J. White and a nifty handoff after getting into the lane and jumping to fake a shot. And he can still find his way through a crowd to get to the hoop in transition.”
• Inside Hoops has an interview with Ralph Lawler. The highlight of his broadcasting career with the Clippers? “Without question, it goes back to 1992. Larry Brown was the ballclub’s coach and in the middle of the playoffs against the Utah Jazz, LA was hit with the Rodney King riots and shut down the city for four days, postponed the playoffs and the Jazz were kind of stranded in Los Angeles. They couldn’t even get home, curfew at night and they finally revived the series, moved the game to Anaheim, which is about 40 miles south of LA.  On a Sunday afternoon, all of a sudden a cloud lifted over the city. People could go out and have fun and the Clippers defeated the Jazz in an exciting game and forced the fifth and final game of the playoffs the following day in Salt Lake City.”
• Crackers and bananas for Baron. If he plays this right, he could lose 10-15 pounds.
• Did you know that at every Hornets’ home game, there’s a religious benediction before the national anthem?